Location

ONS operates a flexible hybrid working model across the UK, with colleagues linked to one of our contractual locations in Newport, Titchfield (Fareham), Manchester or Darlington and working between office and remote throughout the week.

As part of the hybrid working arrangement there is a 40% minimum office attendance requirement. Attendance is typically at your contractual office, with occasional travel to alternative locations. Due to estates constraints, there are currently temporary exceptions to this for colleagues based at Manchester and Darlington who are required to attend the office for a minimum of 20% of their work time.

About The Job

Job summary

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, health, social, and demographic topics.These include measuring changes in the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, health and migration.

As a whole, Methods and Statistical Design Division, which is part of the Methods and Quality Directorate , supports the entire statistical production chain, and areas of expertise include: data collection methods (where most of the social research posts are located) as well as time series methods, sample design, estimation, weighting and modelling, statistical disclosure control, editing and imputation, index numbers, machine learning, statistical computing, demographic methods and quality measurement.

Methods and Statistical Design Division works across all ONS outputs and helps ensure that statistical outputs are underpinned by robust methodology and meet accepted quality standards. The Division aims to improve the rigour and cost-effectiveness of regular statistical outputs, undertakes research, and provides advice and guidance on best practice, ensuring new methodologies deliver improved statistics. The Division also seeks to exploit technology and emerging statistical and data-science methodologies to research and develop innovative solutions to new and existing problems, and provides a forward-looking, efficient, professional and accessible service to its stakeholders

Please note - Posts in this campaign are Quantitative in nature.

If you are interested in finding out more about the roles on offer then please join our candidate information session on Wednesday 9th of October at 11am

Job Description

We currently have vacancies in our Methods and Statistical Design & Quality and Improvement Divisions. We are offering posts for Statistical Methodologists at the SEO Specialist grade.

Methodologists apply their expertise to conduct and lead research and analysis projects and support different business areas in ONS with the provision of advice and guidance. Methodologists often manage one or more Assistant Methodologists and will be responsible for developing and coaching staff in technical and other competency areas.

Methodologists will work primarily in one area of expertise based on their technical experience and current vacancies, while being given opportunities to get involved in a range of work.

Our specialisms in Methodology & Quality include:

Imputation
Analysis and modelling
Bayesian methods
Estimation
Machine learning
Questionnaire design
Statistical disclosure control
Data linkage
Time series
Quality measurement
Sampling

Key Responsibilities

Methodologist posts often have line management responsibilities for Assistant Methodologists. Other responsibilities include (but not limited to)

Manage and deliver a range of methodological and analytical research and development projects.
Apply your skills and knowledge to ensure and improve the quality of methods used in the production of official statistics.
Work closely with your customers in understanding and meeting their needs and communicating your findings.
You will expected to provide motivating and inspirational leadership to your team, whilst also supporting their wellbeing.
Supporting, developing, and coaching Assistant Methodologists in technical and other competency areas.
Working to a Principal Methodologist and provide input and advice on the strategic direction of the team.
Support the wider improvement of directorate working practices through joining or contributing to the leadership of non-technical working groups.
The role may entail working collaboratively with experts in academia, other government departments and national statistical institutes worldwide, as well as working on a consultancy basis for external customers.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

An awareness of a broad range of statistical, data science, social, or quantitative methods and research topics.
Experience conducting statistical or data science research.
Experience of managing and delivering a range of projects with high quality outcomes, including experience of working with customers to establish and meet their needs.
Experience in investigating methodological issues, problem solving, and being innovative in developing solutions.
Experience of guiding, developing, and coaching other analytical colleagues and quality assuring their work.
An aptitude for statistical computing (programming), with experience of at least one of R, Python, SAS, Stata or other similar languages, and the ability to learn new programming languages.

Qualifications

A minimum 2:1 undergraduate degree or post-graduate degree (conditional offers may be made for predicted grades) in either:

A mathematical, statistical, or data science discipline, or other subject with substantial statistical or analytical content.

OR

Clearly demonstrated equivalent experience, knowledge or qualifications may also be considered.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Managing a Quality Service
Leadership
Communicating and Influencing

Technical Skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

Acquiring Data Goverment_Statistical_Group_Framework
Data Analysis Goverment_Statistical_Group_Framework
Presenting and disseminating data effectively Goverment_Statistical_Group_Framework

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £40,951, Office for National Statistics contributes £11,863 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our 5400 valued colleagues across the business.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that the benefits pack attached (bottom of page) will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.

Inclusion & Accessibility

At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a member of the Business Disability Forum and a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.

If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Security Clearance

The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying.

A lack of UK residency in itself is not always a bar to security clearance but the Department will need to consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link , or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.

At the point of SC application you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
Security Services records

Applicants may utilise AI resources in their submissions; ensuring all information provided is factually accurate, truthful, and original, avoiding any form of plagiarism to maintain the authenticity and credibility of the application process.

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

Sift

Assessment at application stage will be based on your work history, skill and experience and personal statement. Your application should be tailored to demonstrate any skills, knowledge and experience that are relevant to the content of the role.

Your personal statement should be no longer than 1250 words. You should use this space fully to provide evidence for each essential criterion within the person specification. As the criteria are scored, we would recommend that you give clear examples for each including the impact of your actions and set them out using the STAR acronym (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage.

In cases where there is a high number of applications the sift pass mark may be adjusted and candidates will be invited to interview in merit order, i.e., those scoring the highest.

Interview

Should you be invited to interview you will be assessed against all the behaviours (and technical skills if applicable) as outlined in the advert.

A presentation will be required at interview. Further information will be provided to shortlisted candidates prior to interview.

Interviews will be held via video conferencing.

Other Information

A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

Sift will take place – from 16th October

Interviews – from 4th November

Dates are subject to change

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment below.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window) . See our vetting charter (opens in a new window) .

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality Requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window) .

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window) .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

Name : MQD Resource
Email : mqd.resource@ons.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email : anthony.jones@ons.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact recruitment.complaints@ons.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission

Office for National Statistics jobs

Statistical Methodologist